CAMPAIGN 2000

Buchanan Wins Spot on Ballot in Battleground Florida

MIAMI — Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan won a spot on the presidential ballot Monday in hotly contested Florida, where polls show Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush in a dead heat.

Opinion polls among likely Florida voters have shown only 1% to 3% supporting Buchanan, the conservative commentator who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. But with Gore and Bush tied in the race for Florida's 25 electoral votes, Buchanan could affect the outcome if he draws more heavily from one main party than the other.

Green Party nominee Ralph Nader is also on the ballot.

After a brief hearing Monday in Tallahassee, Circuit Judge Terry Lewis signed off on an agreement in which Buchanan, rather than John Hagelin, would be listed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party's nominee. Hagelin will appear as the nominee of the Natural Law Party. A split during the Reform Party's national convention left both candidates claiming the nomination.

Buchanan now appears on the ballot in 49 of the 50 states and is running as a write-in in Michigan.